Zach Edey was brought to Vidal Massiah’s attention by Massiah’s sister, who saw the then-15-year-old Toronto native at a basketball event in January 2018 and texted her brother with a picture and a concise breakdown: he’s tall, she wrote.
The executive director of Northern Kings, a local AAU program, Massiah hadn’t heard of Edey, then a relative newcomer to basketball after spending his youth focused on baseball and, of course, hockey. But he was almost absurdly large — as a young teenager, approaching 7 feet and still growing — and he was local, and more than worthy of a deeper look.
Two months later, Massiah sat in the bleachers and watched Edey play for the first time. Within minutes, “I was blown away,” Massiah recalled.
“His technique, his soft touch, and he was an athlete,” said Massiah, who played at Saint Bonaventure and went on to captain the Canadian men’s national team. “Once we were done working out, I told his mom, ‘You got an NBA player right here.’ “
Now a 7-foot-4 junior for Purdue, the Big Ten regular season and conference tournament champions and the No. 1 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament, Edey has blossomed into the most dominant big man in college basketball and one of the top players in program history.
Purdue center Zach Edey (15) goes to the basket against Penn State forward Michael Henn (24) during the second half at United Center.
Everyone noticed the height; very few saw the untapped potential that has made Edey a prohibitive favorite for national player of the year.
“Once we got him, the entire community had never seen him or heard of him,” Massiah said. “So I was the butt of some jokes, in terms of, ‘What are you doing with that kid? Do you think this kid has a chance?’
“That was the take on Zach from a lot of people. Which is why I’m so proud of him. It’s an incredible, incredible story of like, totally doubted to totally dominant.”
GIANT-KILLER: Princeton feeling ‘surreal’ after stunning No. 2…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/zach-edey-surprise-no-more-110912208.html?src=rss
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2023-03-17 11:09:12
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
